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How do users connect IOT device to WiFi?

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djacobow:

--- Quote from: Kasper on August 08, 2019, 01:53:50 am ---
--- Quote from: Richard Crowley on August 08, 2019, 01:51:20 am ---Didn't the ElectricImp gang manage to get a patent on the "flashing-light" method of setup?
IMHO, another example of something that is both obvious and very likely "prior-art" getting a patent.

--- End quote ---

I guess I'll have to use a blinking-light instead of flashing-light ;)

--- End quote ---

Yeah, I agree that such a patent would not (should not) hold up, but I guess you need to be prepared to defend yourself, and that could get expensive very fast.

bitseeker:
Yep. As they say, the real cost of having a patent is defending it.

ejeffrey:
Yeah, access point method is nice because it is universal, but even in the best of situations it is clunky.

Bluetooth and NFC are much more suited to this but NFC isn't universal yet and Bluetooth just sucks.   WPS is a neat idea but too insecure.  USB connection to a desktop has too many driver and OS problems.  USB to a phone isn't much better.  Even if you have a screen and keypad forcing users to manually enter the password isn't great.

In short, everything is terrible, but the access point method is the least terrible option that works almost everywhere.

Fire Doger:

--- Quote from: djacobow on August 08, 2019, 12:59:54 am ---Everyone has explained what most IOT devices do, but honestly, the AP approach is a terrible customer experience. It requires changing your associated network on your phone twice. Furthermore, I believe both Android and IOS do not allow apps to do this, so they user has to switch from the app to the os WiFi screen, then back again, then back to the WiFi screen, then usually back to the app. (Maybe this policy was changed?)

Also, it kind of blows that you need an app to configure an IOT device at all.

The current state of the art, in my opinion, is garbage.

There are other methods. Electric Imp used a photodiode to allow an app to flash a pattern on the screen that conveys the credentials to the device. You could do something similar with an audio modem and the phone's speaker and a mic in the device.
Both require apps, but i guess that's our world now.

Another approach is to use something like a PC to write a simple text file to a usb thumb drive, which you then plug into the iot device to be read during setup. At least this could be done without a phone and from non-mainstream OSes.

Regardless, it ain't pretty.

--- End quote ---
Android supports it, its just hard. In relative new Android versions it required location access because in theory from AP app can get a relative position of you.

Add a button and send credentials in Morse code... No app, everyone is happy... :palm:

Use a pattern as SSID SmartThingie_xxxxxx
For xxxxx use ESP's serial or something similar
Password:
option 1 Use the same for all devices
option 2 Use a secret key to generate a password based on SSID.
If you make an app scan for WiFi with this pattern and connect to it. On finish reconnect to last connected network.

When you connect to ESP's network esp is the router, it can do a lot of things. Search it on YouTube

Also I think Bluetooth doesn't require anything extra if you don't use it in marketing, just classic FCC and similar for other countries.

Jeroen3:
I have seen other methods:

1. By sound. Communication by encoding the data in sound near the device, old school modem days. Drawback: it needs a mic and audio processing. Can be as simple as a single AM modulated carrier.
2. By packet length. It's called SmartConfig and available in the CC3000 from TI. It listens to data encoded in WiFi packet length. You can't read the encrypted packets, but you can read the length of them. So the phone just spits out a sort of morse code with some UDP frames.
You do need smartphone or laptop for both of these.

3. SD card/USB tool.

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